Brevard Symphony Orchestra to Present INTO THE SPOTLIGHT, 1/18

Brevard Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Music Director & Principal Conductor Christopher Confessore leads the BSO for the third subscription concert of the 2013-2014 season, Into the Spotlight, on Saturday, January 18, 2014, for two performances at 2:00pm and 8:00pm at the King Center for the Performing Arts. To begin the program, Maestro Confessore leads the BSO with Copland's wonderful and poignant Quiet City, followed by Mozart's charming Sinfonia Concertante. Beethoven's forward-looking and majestically-optimistic Symphony No. 2 closes the program. This concert will highlight the talents of BSO musicians: Concertmaster Lisa Ferrigno, Anita Juilianna (English horn), Tom Macklin (Principal Trumpet), Ken Martinson (PrincipAl Viola).

For further information about the Brevard Symphony Orchestra and this performance, including program notes and artist bios, visit www.brevardsymphony.com.

Composed in 1939, Quiet City was originally composed for Irwin Shaw's play of the same name, a play with a contemporary urban setting exploring the "night thoughts of many different kinds of people in a great city." The principal character was a jazz trumpeter who served as spokesman for the author. After the play closed, Copland refashioned the music into an independent orchestral piece. The music conveys a wonderful poignancy through understatement rather than overt passion. This is music about loneliness, loneliness stemming from an unmistakable American melancholy. Nostalgic, world-weary, and with the suggestion of the bleakness found only in the physical landscape of a run-down urban area, this music comes straight from Copland's heart and may very well be one his greatest "lesser-known" works.

Composed in 1779 and following his five violin concertos by five years, this Sinfonia Concertante was Mozart's last and greatest concerted work for strings. The first movement of the E-flat Sinfonia Concertante is a virile and energetic Allegro maestoso and takes on a heroic dimension right from the opening bars with the key of E-flat established in strong tonic chords and descending arpeggios. The poignant second movement Andante is uncommon in late 18th century music. Cast in the seldom-used key of C-minor, Mozart provides one of his most moving essays, exuding deeply felt sadness and sorrow. The contrasting final Presto is a playful and joyous rondo in which violin and viola chase after each other with numerous touches of good humor.

Closing the program is Beethoven's Symphony No. 2. Full of beauty, fun, life and optimism, the Symphony No. 2 is a convincing affirmation of Beethoven's commitment to bringing music forth and forward. Although seeming very classical in spirit and technique, the Second is almost as significant a step ahead from the First Symphony as was the Eroica from this one. The Eroica was Beethoven's great breakthrough symphonic statement, but the Second forged a new path and was a significant advance over the reserved language of the First Symphony. The forceful and lively first movement - Adagio molto-Allegro con brio - is preceded by the longest and grandest slow introduction composed up until that time. Spacious and varied, the material is full of an amazing richness and range of bold harmonic excursions and musical characters. The Larghetto second movement introduces a new quality of sweetness in Beethoven's music. Songful with a broadly flowing melody for strings followed by an echoing in the woodwinds, the whole movement overflows with melodies unfolding in a more leisurely manner than is typically found in the tighter classical style. This delicate but zippy third movement, the Scherzo, is full of sudden dynamic and rhythmic twists. The boisterous Allegro molto finale is cast in rondo-sonata form, beginning with an impudent and startling back flip. The first two notes and the last two notes of this somersault serve as fun and effective thematic fragments to toss back and forth among the instruments of the orchestra. A long coda intensifies the irresistible exuberance of the music, and carries it along to the final bar.

This concert is sponsored by Nash & Kromash, Attorneys at Law. Matinee Series is sponsored by Health First Health Plans and YP.com.

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